*My role in the memo assigment was to find resources and analyze them for my groupmates to use. My work can be seen in the work cited section as well as the reconmendations.*
Topic:
Parking issues in NYC
Purpose:
We intend to raise awareness about how tiresome it is to find parking in New York City. The intention of our memo to talk about the problems faced by car owners and to deliver a solution to this exasperating issue.
Audience:
Vehicle owners living in New York City. Restaurant owners with outdoor dining.
Summary:
With the pandemic, people have been uncertain about using public transportation. This has led to the rise in car registrations which means more necessity for parking. Outdoor dining has taken up a significant amount of parking spots. Lack of parking spots is making people very frustrated as they are late to their commitments. This has also led to a rise in illegal parkings as people are desperate.
Discussion:
Throughout the pandemic there has been an increment on the amount of cars in NEw York City which has resulted in chaos due to the restaurants new ability to create some type of outdoor restaurant in the parking area on the street which reduces the space to park by a big margin. Parking space in NYC was an issue before restaurants opened outside, however now the problem has escalated to a point where finding a parking spot could be the one of the biggest obstacles of having a car.
Recommendations:
One solution to the parking problem in NYC can be an app called ‘ParkSwap’. The app enables drivers to notify other drivers in the area when they are going away from their parking spot. From here drivers can see all available parking spots in their area right from their phone, rather than circling the block for hours. To fix the outdoor dining problem, restaurants and cafes should just not be allowed to open outdoors and still do delivery only meals. Outdoor dining has many health risks to begin with, as many people are gathered outside with no masks in the midst of a pandemic. There is no need for them to be open, this just values profit over human life.
Work Cited:
The following article is an article published by the New York Times. The article talks about the mess that parking is in NYC, and how it does not look like it will be getting better anytime soon. As the pandemic hit America, many people in NYC were put off by using public transportation and as a result, car ownership rose exponentially. With more car owners in NYC, this means that there are more people looking to park their vehicles. However, it’s being really hard to park in NYC due to the many challenges. The first challenge is being that there are more car owners competing for parking spaces and parking spaces being taken quickly. The second challenge is the creation of outdoor dining. Outdoor dining is occupying the streets, and they are legally allowed to do so, meaning no one can really tell them to just close down. So as more restaurants are doing outdoor dining because of the coronavirus, more potential parking spots are being taken. The third challenge is the increased rate of bike and bus lanes. Cyclists want the street to belong to “the people”, and with more cycling spots being created, they are taking up more parking spots.
The following article is an article published by the New York Post. The article focuses on the issues that individual New Yorkers have with the parking situation in NYC today. Melaine Wesslock is a mother of one and talks about how frustrating it is to find parking. She has to take her son to school, so everyday she has to leave her parking spot, and then she would circle the block for hours just to find a parking spot. The article also touches on the problem of how outdoor dining has been taking up parking spots in NYC, specifically over 10,000 parking spots have been taken up to make room for outdoor dining.
The following article gives a glimpse of hope/solution to the NYC parking problem. It is about an app called ParkSwap that is trying to make NYC parking easier. The way it works is that a driver will notify others through the app that they are leaving their parking spot, and other drivers in the area will get a notification. A driver will have to claim that parking spot and then the driver will give their parking spot to the other. This can solve the issue of constantly circling the block, looking for a parking spot.
